


hope i'm not tired of rebuilding

by prouveyrac



Series: hope i'm not tired of rebuilding (modern taz balance AU) [1]
Category: TAZ Balance - Fandom, The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Found Family, M/M, eventual taakitz, high school found family to strangers to found family, side blupjeans and magnulia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-21
Updated: 2019-02-21
Packaged: 2019-11-01 13:43:49
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,938
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17868344
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/prouveyrac/pseuds/prouveyrac
Summary: Walking down the crowded Balance Avenue, the handles of two grocery bags in one hand and his cellphone pressed up against his ear with the other, Taako realized with a slight jolt in his stomach and a subtle eyebrow raise, hid behind his sunglasses, that the odd familiarity of his new life was that it was nearly a perfect recreation of his life from seven years ago.--Merle had thought that the kids being with Hekuba for the weekend would grant him some enjoyable time to himself but, rather unfortunately, he was realizing that adjusting to a life that didn’t revolve around chasing kids twenty-four seven was difficult after being stuck in years of domesticity.--Magnus was glad that Hammer & Tongs was finally starting to expand out of Raven’s Roost; he had been telling Stephen for years that the business he crafted with his bare hands deserved to be seen by people outside of their town. Of course, though, Magnus wasn’t surprised at all when it took Julia saying something to convince him.





	hope i'm not tired of rebuilding

**Author's Note:**

> okay so do you ever have an idea for a fic that you have put too much thought into to not write??? bc that's me with this fic, and i really wanted to get this intro piece out!! if i stick with this, i plan on doing connected one-shots, bc that will be easier for me to write with college :)

Walking down the crowded Balance Avenue, the handles of two grocery bags in one hand and his cellphone pressed up against his ear with the other, Taako realized with a slight jolt in his stomach and a subtle eyebrow raise, hid behind his sunglasses, that the odd familiarity of his new life was that it was nearly a perfect recreation of his life from seven years ago.

Which, when one had worked incredibly hard to get away from that particular life for the past seven years, was quite a distressing feeling, which Taako aptly expressed by breathing out a huffed sigh through his nose.

“Are you even listening to me?”Lup said on the other end of the phone call. She sounded more amused than annoyed, as if she was watching Taako walk down the street, contemplating his life like some solemn scene in a movie, instead of enjoying what little break she had in a hospital miles and miles away.

“I always listen to you, bubbalah.” He stepped out of the way of a business man walking briskly enough to almost plow him over, and readjusted his grip on his groceries. He only had two more blocks left until he reached his apartment; if the bags broke now, he was going to lose his shit. “You were talking about how our dear Barold almost torched your lovely little hospital’s kitchen after the microwave backfired and decided to burn his lunch.”

“I still think he just fucked up on reading the directions and is trying to blame modern technology,” Lup mused. Taako could just picture her tapping her well-manicured nails on a table as if her boyfriend’s cooking skills (or lack of) was something to actually be meticulously considered. “But that was the conversation from five minutes ago. Nice try, though.”

“I tried my best, and that’s all that matters.”

“Noted,” Lup agreed. “But, still, heard you sigh. What’s up?”

Taako huffed out a dry laugh. What _wasn’t_ up? “And that’s the million dollar question.”

“Ko,” Lup said, and Taako could hear the frown in her voice. “It can’t be that bad, right?”

“I like to think of it as a pyramid,” Taako said, glancing down the street both ways before walking across the crosswalk. “A pyramid of things that, alone, aren’t too bad. But stacked on top of one another? Pretty fucking shitty.”

Lup hummed. “Well put,” she said. “Care to elaborate?”

“Okay, so, layer one is the worst of them all, I think,” Taako said. “I call this one the ‘Fuck Sazed’ layer.”

“Man, _fuck_ Sazed.” Her words were muffled and Taako got the feeling that she was speaking around a mouthful of food. He almost felt bad for calling Lup on her break, but it had been far too long since he had seen his sister, so he at least needed to hear her voice.

Plus, with where Taako was in his life, he felt like Lup was all he had left.

Not that he would say that, because could someone say fucking pathetic? But, still, he felt like Lup got it.

“Fuck Sazed!” Taako repeated, loud enough to grant him a side-eye from others on the street. “Fuck him and his shitty business practices and trying to steal my dream and leaving and-” Taako cut himself off with a deep breath. He found that if he was allowed to vent about Sazed past _“fuck him for trying to take from me what I’ve always dreamed of and then hauling ass when he couldn’t have it and, therefore, fucking over my business,”_ he tended to get a bit emotional, and he really didn’t want to have a frustrated cry in the middle of the street that he just moved to two weeks prior. “Just- fuck him.”

“So, ‘Fuck Sazed’ is layer one. And layer two?”

Taako smiled, even if Lup wasn’t there to see it.

Reason #267763 why Lup was the only real one in his life: she knew when to stop talking about shit without Taako having to say it.

“Layer two is that, for the first time in, like, I don’t fucking know, six or seven years, I’m unemployed.”

After applying more than a second of thought to the conversation he was having, Taako realized that Lup definitely knew everything he was saying and, if she tried, could probably go through this “pyramid of shitty things” that he constructed. After all, she was the first person Taako had called (in an embarrassing breakdown) when shit hit the fan.

But, still, she listened and let Taako scream about his feelings while she took her lunch.

(Reason #267764.)

“I’m sure there’s job openings over there,” Lup said. “Like, there has to be a bar that needs a bartender or a restaurant that needs a chef or-”

“Yeah,” Taako sighed. “But, honestly Lu, that’s, like, the basics for me. I already _did_ the bartending and the waiting tables and the cooking all throughout college.” He sighed again, this time much more dramatically. “What I want is an open space to have _Sizzle It Up 2: Sans Sazed_.”

Lup sighed, too. “I think you’ll be able to have that again, babe,” she said. “But… you gotta give it time, you know? And with what went on with Sazed… I hate to say it, Taako, but you do have to sorta build from the ground up.”

(Reason #267765: Lup was honest with him, even when it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He wouldn’t give her the satisfaction, though, to know how much he appreciated it.)

“Yeah, yeah,” Taako mumbled, and he would’ve waved his hand dismissively if he had a free one. “So, anyways, layer three: I forgot how expensive it was to live on my own.”

“You know, getting rid of layer two would help with layer three.”

“Okay, whatever, Miss I’m A Doctor With A Doctor Boyfriend And Together We Make More Money Than You Will Ever See In Your Life.”

“You say that as if Sizzle It Up didn’t make fucking _bank_.”

“It _did_ and that’s why this all fucking sucks!”

And, as Taako finally approached his apartment complex, he was ungratefully reminded of the shining, shimmering, annoying tip of his pyramid of shitty things.

_The Lonely Journal,_ the flier posted on the glass front door read. _Currently under construction._

When Taako was looking for new places to live, he had been delighted to see that this particular apartment complex wasn’t trying to break his bank with rent. He figured it was because of the fact that the apartment complex itself was built over a retail space and, currently, a bookstore-cafe-mix was being built. Still, though, at the time, Taako didn’t think much of it. It was a cheap apartment in a nice area and was going to be above some cute coffee-book place; at the time, it seemed fucking sweet.

And now, after two weeks of constantly hearing drills and hammers and shouting, Taako had grown to loathe this Lonely Journal.

“And at the peak of it all,” Taako said, staring into the empty building. It was later in the day, so the construction workers must have headed home. The place looked nearly complete, seeming like it just needed some more cabinets, counters, and finishing touches, but Taako was too annoyed to look at the bright side. “The Lonely Journal.”

“That bookstore with the weirdly familiar name.”

“Yep.” Taako popped the _p_. “Maybe it’s familiar because I had, like, a prophecy in a dream that warned me against this place, and I obviously forgot about it, and now this is the price I must pay.”

“Yeah, probably,” Lup said. “Fucking sucks.”

“Tell me about it.”

Taako then looked up at the sign. Rumor had it that the person opening the store painted the sign themselves, considering the fact that all Taako heard yesterday were the workers shouting at each other to be careful with it. The words _The Lonely Journal_ were painted in neat, elegant, white script over a blue and purple background that almost looked like the universe.

Honestly, it was a beautiful sign, but Taako was a bit too petty to appreciate it currently.

“Well, maybe it’ll have some really good coffee to make up for everything else. Maybe even some good cookbooks,” Lup said. “But, hey, sorry to cut you off, but my break’s over and-”

“Don’t worry about it,” Taako said. “I have to get these groceries in, anyway. Have fun saving lives.”

“You know I will,” Lup said, and then the phone call was cut off.

Behind him, a car sped down the street, sending a blast of hot air past him.

Him and Lup were no strangers to starting over, to picking themselves up off the ground and just beginning again. Once, it felt like a routine. Now, though, Taako was clumsy and unadjusted. He had gotten too comfortable, and now he felt like he did when he was eighteen: clueless and newly graduated and with no plan other than “do something fucking amazing.”

Taako sighed and, with one last look at the sign, pocketed his phone and took out his keys. It was too hot for his groceries to be sitting out for too long.

* * *

 

Merle had thought that the kids being with Hekuba for the weekend would grant him some enjoyable time to himself but, rather unfortunately, he was realizing that adjusting to a life that didn’t revolve around chasing kids twenty-four seven was difficult after being stuck in years of domesticity.

Not that Merle didn’t love his children. He _very much_ did. Sure, he wasn’t the best dad, but he wasn’t _that_ bad.

Though, he’ll admit, he did think that the first weekend officially divorced would be… something interesting. He was young, leaving a marriage where there was never any love in the first place; wasn’t he supposed to, you know, be a free man roaming the town? Getting down in clubs? Living his life as if he hasn’t spent the past twenty-seven years letting other people govern it?

Honest to Pan, though, it felt… weird to have time to himself. Sitting behind the counter of his shop, he had become so used to Maevis sitting next to him with a book that her teachers called “above her grade level” and Mookie running around narrowly avoiding expensive flower vases that the silence felt… well, fucking weird.

Which was pretty fucking hysterical (and also the worst case of irony) because, ten years ago, if someone had told Merle that he would get oddly used to domesticity, he would’ve laughed in their face.

(Actually, he was told that. Repeatedly. That he would love domesticity. That him and Hekuba would get over whatever “love-hate” phase they were having. That they would be a big, happy family with a nice white picket fence and Sunday dinners. And he had nodded along with a slightly disinterested, “Yes, dad. Okay, dad.”)

But, despite it all, he did love his kids. Whatever he and Hekuba had definitely faded before they even graduated high school, and he’d be lying if he said that he didn’t think kids would just make it even more strained, but… having two people who needed him, who looked up to him (which not many people did, literally and metaphorically), well… it made Merle want to do better, to _be_ better.

Merle then huffed out a sigh and ran a hand down his face, scratching his beard. Fuck, the heat must actually be getting to him if he was being _that_ sentimental. He was Merle _Fucking_ (Hitower) Highchurch, the legend with almost two thousand “party points” after that one party back in high school. He was supposed to be chill and suave and impressive.

And, instead, he was twenty-seven, divorced with two children, the owner of a florist, and unable to remember why he was stacked up in party points.

It wasn’t disappointing, but it was definitely different.

But, hey, life, right?

Merle had been checking the cash register, debating about whether or not to close up shop early since he doubted anyone would be coming to a florist fifteen minutes before it closed, when the bell hanging above the door jingled annoyingly.

And then Merle cursed himself and whoever else was listening for jinxing him.

However, before he could deliver any kind of greeting that hopefully masked his annoyance, an all-too-familiar, if slightly nasally, voice said, “I just knew that a place called Pan’s Sanctuary had to be yours.”

Merle’s head snapped up, his aggravation long gone, and gaped at the man before him. Merle hadn’t seen him in years—his business took him elsewhere after high school and proceeded to keep him there—but Merle would have recognize the red-head in front of him anywhere. How could he not? He was, after all, the only one out of the seven of them to be shorter than Merle.

“Well, fuck me running!” Merle exclaimed, hopping up from where he was sitting to slam his hands on the counter, nearly upturning a cup of pens. “Cap’nport!”

Cap’nport (or Dav or Captain or Captain Davenport or Captain Captain Davenport or Davenport) sighed and shook his head, though the small smile on his face erased any exasperation. “I really didn’t think that nickname would stick for this long.”

“Of course it would!” Merle was already around to the other side of the counter, yanking Davenport into a tight hug that, immediately, Merle worried would crush his thin frame. Still, though, he didn’t let go. “You were our captain- still are! How the fuck have you been?”

“Currently winded,” Davenport gasped out, finally causing Merle to loosen his grip and take a step back. Davenport, after adjusting his tie, smiled. “And- busy.”

“You always are,” Merle laughed, shaking his head. “And always were.”

Davenport shrugged. “One of us had to be productive.”

He smirked. “Oh, and we weren’t?”

“Absolutely not,” Davenport said.

“Still pretty blunt, I see.”

“Lup and Taako were there, Merle.”

Merle sighed, nodding. He had a point. “Alright, alright, fine,” he said, putting his hands up in mock defeat. “But, really, what brings you over here? Last time we talked, you had just moved to… Neverwinter, right?”

“Shit, was it really that long ago?” Merle nodded and Davenport sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. “Thought so. That’s where my last office was.”

“Was?” Merle asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Funnily enough,” Davenport said, “I actually just relocated here.”

Merle let out a surprised laugh. “You’re kidding!”

“There’s an office right down the street,” Davenport explained. “I just started working there last week and saw this place on my way there this morning.”

“The speech therapy place, right?” Davenport nodded and Merle, shaking his head, laughed. “Well, isn’t this something? I haven’t seen- well, any of you, really, in so long, and yet here you are!”

Davenport huffed and looked around Merle’s shop, his eyes sliding over vases and hanging plant. “Yeah, it’s- it’s been a while,” he said. He looked somewhere between sheepish and guilty, as if he took fault for their group’s falling out. Though, Merle couldn’t blame him; it’s not like he took it easy. “I try to reach out, you know? But there’s work and a bunch of us have families now, and then Glamour Springs was always so far out of the way and Lup and Barry have their residencies and-”

“And Lucretia went off to be a genius in some uppity college,” Merle added. If he tried, he could probably list a thousand other things that held the seven of them back from keeping what they once had.

Davenport let out a small laugh. “Ironically enough, she’s the one I talk to the most,” he said. “Still not… too often, but enough to be able to keep incredibly vague tags.”

Merle raised his eyebrows and tilted his head, his round glasses slipping down his nose. “Really?” he asked, pushing them back up.

Davenport hummed. “Actually, she’s-”

And then, suddenly and with a loud slam, the door to Merle’s shop was swung open and the bell didn’t so much ring as practically scream its annoying tune. Both men startled and jolted their heads to the figure that just ran in.

A man, sweaty and panting, was holding onto Merle’s door frame, hunched over slightly with his cheeks flushed a dark crimson. For a split second, Merle debated whether or not to just call an ambulance now or use what little first aid skills he had, when the man gasped out, “Sorry- I- Anniversary. Tomorrow. I forgot. I- Please, I need a- a bouquet. Something. _Anything_.”

Merle glanced at the clock on the wall. Five minutes to close.

Davenport looked between the two and took a step back towards the door. “Well, I guess that’s my cue,” he said. “I’ll try to come around again soon, Merle.”

“You do that, Dav,” Merle said as the sweaty, disgruntled man stepped aside for Davenport to slip past him. And then, with a wave and a turn, Davenport continued his walk down the street.

Merle, then turning tired eyes to the terribly-timed customer in front of him, sighed and said, waving him in, “You’re really in the shitter, aren’t you?”

* * *

 

Magnus was glad that Hammer & Tongs was finally starting to expand out of Raven’s Roost; he had been telling Stephen for years that the business he crafted with his bare hands deserved to be seen by people outside of their town. Of course, though, Magnus wasn’t surprised at all when it took Julia saying something to convince him.

Magnus couldn’t blame him, really. He trusted everything Julia said. She was the love of his life, and had yet to lead him astray in even simple things like where they got their take-out from. Stephen teased Magnus for the way his daughter had him wrapped around his finger, but he knew that Stephen was no different, either.

He digressed.

Whether or not Stephen listened to his daughter or his son-in-law (the former typically yielding better results than the latter), Magnus was thrilled to be on the construction crew for this new bookstore. Raven’s Roost was only two cities over from Advent, but he had rarely ever went to the city. Raven’s Roost was lively enough to warrant barely visiting elsewhere for much but, after spending a couple weeks now working on the bookstore, Magnus was considering taking Julia out here for a daytrip.

Which was exactly what Magnus was talking with her over the phone about.

“It’s gonna be finished in a couple days, yeah?” Julia was saying. In the distance, Magnus could hear a drill whirring, and assumed that Julia was in one of the back-rooms of Hammer & Tongs. “It’d be a cute place for a date.”

“Right?” Magnus, currently, was leaning against one of the finished counters, looking out at the busy street. The sun shone through the windows, casting bright streaks across the wooden floor and, outside, people bustled back and forth down the sidewalk. “The entire city is pretty nice, actually. This street alone has practically everything.”

“Well, then maybe one day when my father isn’t working you down to the bone, we’ll head out there.”

He smirked at the teasing tone in her voice. “You’re saying I can’t handle it?”

Julia laughed, and Magnus’ heart soared at the sound. “I’m not saying _anything_.”

“You wound me, Jules,” Magnus said, dramatically throwing a hand to his chest despite Julia not being there to see it. “All this hard work I do for you, and this is how I’m treated.”

“Hey, no one forced you to go in early by yourself.”

“Yeah, well, the cabinets and counters needed finishing, and sometimes it’s nice to have some time alone to actually hear yourself think.”

“Such a sap.” Magnus could tell that Julia was smiling.

“A sap that you love.” He glanced down at the gold band around his ring finger.

Julia sighed. “I _guess_ I do.”

Magnus laughed. “A woman after my own heart,” he said, shaking his head. “Oh, also, I should be home around… five? The other guys are coming in soon. Do you want me to pick something up?”

“Oh, god, I haven’t even thought about dinner yet.”

“Well, there’s-” And then Magnus’ thoughts were cut off for, outside the shop, Magnus saw too familiar of a figure walk by for him to ignore. He faltered for a moment, blinking, before quickly getting out, “Actually, yeah, let me know. I, uh, I think I see someone I know, and-”

“Oh, go! Be social!” Julia said. “I’ll call you later!”

“Yes, cool, okay,” Magnus said, already heading for the door. “I love you! Bye!”

Magnus was already out the door when the call went dead and, without putting much thought into it, he shouted, “Hey!” down the busy street.

It perhaps wasn’t the _greatest_ idea since most people responded to someone shouting but, luckily for Magnus, the person he had eyes on spun around to look directly at him.

Magnus would be honest: it had been a while since he had seen him, but Taako looked fucking _great_.

His warm, bronze skin had been tanned even more from the summer sun. His hair (platinum now) was tied on top of his head in a bun, and Magnus could see his dark brown roots growing in. Large sunglasses covered his eyes, but Magnus could just _feel_ Taako’s stare.

“Magnus Burnsides,” Taako was saying as if it has only been two weeks since they’ve seen each other. “Long time no see, my man.”

Magnus laughed. “Yeah, fucking tell me about it!” When Taako was within arm’s reach, Magnus pulled him into a tight hug. “What are you doing here?”

Taako, after a moment’s wait, returned the hug with a one-armed squeeze, and, quickly, Magnus took a step back. “Sorry, sorry-”

Taako waved a hand. “You’re all good,” he said. “But, you know, I could ask you the same thing.”

“Still as evasive as ever, I’m assuming?”

Taako smirked and shrugged.

Magnus grinned. Something about this felt… right. “Okay, fine, I’ll break first,” he said and then jutted his thumb at the bookstore. “This is what I’m doing here.”

Taako gaped at him and, after a second, pushed his sunglasses on top of his head. “You’re fucking with me, right?”

Magnus blinked. “No?”

“Well, fuck!” Taako exclaimed, laughing in disbelief. He pointed a finger up to something above them. “That’s what _I’m_ doing here!”

Magnus followed the direction he was pointing in and found himself looking at the apartment complex above the bookstore.

“Holy shit-” Magnus looked back to Taako “- _You’re_ kidding, right?”

Taako laughed, rolling his eyes. “Yeah, Mags, totally just fucking around,” he said. “Great goof, right? Funny bit, yeah?”

Magnus rolled his eyes. “Okay, yeah, dumb question,” he said. “But I just- I can’t believe I’ve been working on this place and never even knew you lived here.”

“If I’m being honest, I’ve kinda been avoiding your, uh, entire crew,” Taako said, laughing slightly. “All your construction and carpentry… _stuff_ has been messing with my Taako time.”

Magnus raised an eyebrow. “Weren’t you told that there’d be some noise?”

“Well, yeah,” Taako sighed. “But I didn’t think that-! Okay, yeah, I just didn’t think.”

He laughed. “Well, sorry for that,” he said. “I just can’t believe-”

“You know, if I wanted to take a walk down memory lane, I would have just looked in my yearbook.”

Magnus spun around as, behind him, Taako said, “Oh, you’ve _gotta_ be fucking kidding me.”

Merle Highchurch, walking up to the two of them, had the biggest grin on his face and his hands shoved in the pockets of his shorts. Magnus knew that Merle had kids but, with his brown, bushy beard and button-up flowered shirt, he looked surprisingly more dad-like than Magnus expected.

“Well,” Magnus said, “Holy shit.”

“Yeah,” Merle said, laughing and shaking his head. “Holy shit.”

“Wow, guys, what a way with words,” Taako said, stepping up beside Magnus with his hands on his hips.

“Well, do you have anything better to say, Taako?” Magnus asked.

Taako shrugged. “What the fuck?”

Magnus thought for a moment before nodding. “Yeah, that also works.”

“What the hell are you guys doing here?” Merle asked, looking up between the two of them.

Magnus pointed at the bookstore. Taako pointed at the apartment complex.

“And you?” Taako asked.

Merle pointed somewhere behind them. “The florist a couple buildings down,” he said. “And then an apartment. Different one.”

Taako shook his head. “Un-fucking-believable,” he said. “I don’t see any of you for fucking _ages_ , and now here we all are!”

“And we owe it all to-” Merle looked to the side “-The Lonely Journal. Whatever the fuck that is.”

“A bookstore-cafe thing,” Magnus explained.

“And it’s not all because of that,” Taako said. “I didn’t move here for some store.”

“Well-” Magnus cocked his head “-I did see you walking by while working, bringing us here, and now Merle’s here, too, because he saw us, so-”

“Okay, yeah, yeah, I get it,” Taako said, huffing.

“I think you’re just bitter because our construction on this place messed with your beauty sleep.”

“And rightfully so!”

Before Magnus could think of something witty to say, Merle read aloud again, slower, “The Lonely Journal.”

He furrowed his eyebrows, and both he and Taako looked back down at Merle. “Yeah, Merle, that’s the name of the place,” he said.

“Well, obviously, yeah, I _can_ read, you know,” Merle said, finally looking back at the two of them. “But doesn’t that, like, ring a bell?”

Taako and Magnus shared a look before all three of them turned to look back up at the painted sign. Magnus had helped hang it the day before and, yeah, the name seemed to mean _something_ to him but, at the time, Magnus just thought it was because it was a cool name for a bookstore.

Now, though, looking at the sign… something about it did seem recognizable.

“Yeah, I guess it’s familiar,” Magnus said.

“But not too familiar,” Taako added. “Because then we’d remember it.”

“But not too _not_ -familiar,” Merle said. “Because we _do_ recognize it.”

“Maybe it’s just a catchy name?” Magnus suggested.

“Sounds a bit sad,” Taako said. “Being lonely and all.”

Merle shrugged. “I think it’s fine.”

“Well, do you guys want to come in? Maybe figure this name out? Get a sneak preview of what’s been keeping Taako up?” Magnus asked. “Also it’s air-conditioned.”

“I’m already there,” Taako said, swinging open the door with a flourish and walking in. Following suit, Magnus breathed a sigh of relief at the sudden cool air as the door shut behind the three of them.

“It’s coming along nice,” Merle said.

“I’d be pissed if it wasn’t,” Taako said. “I would not stand being woken up early for an ugly store. Hey, you’re gonna, like, wipe down these counters before finishing this place, right?” Magnus, frowning, nodded slowly. “Alright, cool.” And, then, Taako pushed himself up onto one of the finished counters.

Merle leaned next to him. “So, what have you two been up to in the past… while?”

Magnus shook his head. “I can’t believe it’s been so long.”

“You can say that again,” Taako mumbled.

“Well, we all scattered out after we graduated,” Merle said. “I mean, Taako, you went all the way out to Glamour Springs, and Dav went to Neverwinter- speaking of! Did you guys know that he works on this street, too? Saw him yesterday!”

“You’re _fucking_ kidding me,” Taako said, which seemed to be incredibly applicable to this entire situation. “And- and, yeah, Glamour Springs was… a thing.”

Magnus scoffed. “Opening up a great restaurant isn’t just _a thing_ , I think. Don’t suddenly pretend you’re one for modesty,” he said. “Is that why you’re out here? Expanding the brand?”

“Sazed’s dead to me,” Taako said casually, swinging his legs. “And that’s all I’m saying on the matter.”

Magnus and Merle shared a wide-eyed look, which seemed to prompt Merle into saying, “Well, Hekuba and I are divorced.”

“Oh shit,” Magnus muttered.

“ _Please_ tell me married life is treating you well,” Taako said. “Small ceremony, right? Couple months ago? Still going well?”

Magnus nodded. “Going great, actually.”

“That would’ve been really awkward if it wasn’t,” Merle said.

Magnus sighed. “Yeah.”

A moment of silence passed.

“Well,” Taako said, leaning back on his hands. “We’ve managed to turn a nice reunion into something very close to a pity party and I will pack my shit up and move _again_ if this continues.”

“Well, if anything, I’m glad to see you two,” Magnus said. “And now I’ll have to catch Cap’nport soon, too. And what about Lup and Barry?” He turned to Taako. “I’m assuming you see them all the time. I’ve called Barry kinda recently, but-”

“They’re both busy as fuck with their residencies, so you’re lucky to get them on the phone for thirty seconds,” Taako explained. “But they’re doing just peachy.”

“Perfect,” Magnus said, grinning. “And anyone heard from Lucretia?”

“Dav said that he’s spoken to her kinda recently,” Merle said. Taako arched an eyebrow. “Didn’t get to hear about what, though.”

“Well, we all gotta get together and catch up now!” Magnus exclaimed. “We’ll find Lucretia and you-” he pointed at Merle “-can get Davenport and you-” he moved his finger to Taako “-can convince Barry and Lup to stop saving lives for a day and we can, like, have a huge family dinner!”

Merle nodded. “Might as well happen,” he said as Taako, now silent, shrugged.

Magnus eyed Taako, looking to see if any more of a reaction would come out of him. Being honest, yeah, it was kinda super shitty that they all managed to lose touch after high school, especially after being so close for so long, but something about Lucretia always brought out a certain… coolness in Taako.

Still though, Magnus hoped that the sudden chill he felt was from the AC kicking into overdrive and not Taako, who was now examining his nails.

“So, gotta know, who’s this place for?” Merle asked. Whether he felt the sudden tension, too, or just felt that their previous conversation was going nowhere, Magnus was thankful. “Maybe we know the person.”

Magnus shrugged. “A woman, I think,” he said. “I wasn’t there when Stephen helped her make the layout.”

“Well, come on, my dude, there has to be paperwork _somewhere,_ ” Taako said, leaning forward to rest his elbows on his thighs. He propped his chin on his hands. “It’s gonna kill me if I never find out what’s up with the name of this place.”

“Well, I mean, yeah,” Magnus said, looking back at the swinging doors that lead to the small back room. “Hold on.”

Walking back there and pushing open the doors, Magnus picked up the packet of papers that had been left on one of the counters that still needed to be finished. It was open to the last page, displaying the final layouts of the store.

“We’ve just been using this for the layouts,” Magnus said, walking back to the other two, waving the papers. “But there’s gotta be a contract somewhere in here.”

“The temptation is killing me,” Taako said dryly as Magnus flipped through the papers.

On the second page, he finally found what he was looking for and, scanning it, his eyes faltered and then widened on the neat signature at the bottom of the page. He read it and then reread it, assuring himself that he was reading every single letter correctly.

This was _way too great_ of a coincidence to fuck up by misreading a letter.

“Well, found Lucretia,” Magnus said, finally looking up at the other two.

Merle and Taako gaped at him.

_“You’re fucking kidding me,”_ Taako said as Merle guffawed, his head tilting back as his laughter filled the room.

“Of fucking _course_ it’s her!” Merle said as if it should have been obvious. “Writing and journaling and- she used to always say that she’d love to open up a place like this! Fuck, she probably thought of this name back when we were all teenagers!”

“You know, there’s _coincidences_ ,” Taako said. “And then there’s, I don’t fucking know, the _universe_ deciding to fuck with us.”

“Okay, well, you two know what this means, right?” Magnus asked, waving around the contract with Lucretia’s neat, looping signature at the bottom. “This is some type of sign. If the seven of us don’t all get together again, the world may as well end.”

* * *

 

_Ten Years Prior_

Davenport had managed to convince Mr. Leon to let them use his classroom for “an afternoon study session” after school. It was best for Davenport to ask him. According to Merle, who had Mr. Leon for the same class Davenport did, Davenport was the only one who didn’t make Mr. Leon want to rip his hair out.

Lucretia had only heard stories of Magnus trying to use Barry’s assignments as his own, and of Taako and Lup trying to switch places even though they’ve been able to be told apart for years, but she believed Merle when he told her that.

Sitting on one of the lab tables, watching her six friends with her legs crossed under her, Lucretia was quickly realizing, though, that “after school study session” might have been a bit an exaggeration. The seven of them had only taken over Mr. Leon’s classroom for not even five minutes and, already, Taako and Lup were passing markers as they drew on the board, Magnus was staring in wonder at the fish tanks stationed along the back of the room, Merle was sitting on the windowsill and smoking out the window, and Barry had his eyes on whatever the twins were doodling (though Lucretia could argue that he only had eyes for Lup). The only one who seemed to be showing even a fraction of productivity was Davenport, who was currently walking back into the classroom.

“Okay, so,” he said, looking over the other six in the room. She thought he looked tired, and perhaps that could be because he was now realizing that, as one of the two juniors in the room, and the oldest one at that, he was solely responsible for all of them. Then again, Davenport always looked a bit tired, so maybe he was doing just fine.

“Security knows we’re here, Mr. Leon left a note behind saying so,” he continued. “So… we’re all good?”

“Fucking rad,” Lup said, the red marker in her hand stilling as she looked over her shoulder. She grinned, and it was excited and mischievous and beautiful.

Lucretia believed herself to be fairly good at reading people, but she didn’t need to be a detective to know that Barry really liked Lup. Lucretia could see why.

“It’s like we have our own little club now!”

“Well, kinda,” Taako said. “A club with just the seven of us and _only_ the seven of us.”

“And we can’t say that unless we want to get in trouble for bullying,” Barry pointed out.

Lup huffed dramatically, shifting her weight to one foot. “Well, obviously,” she said. “I’m not saying we trapeze around the halls flaunting our totally-secret-totally-fucking-awesome club in everyone’s faces! It’s just-” she shrugged “-Cool to have something to do after school. And now that Luce is finally in high school-” And she shot a grin at Lucretia “-We all have something to do together!”

Lucretia smiled back. “So an unofficial club.”

Lup pointed at her. “Exactly!”

“I, for one, love it,” Magnus said, coming up from behind Lucretia and sitting next to her on the lab table. “And, obviously, if we’re making a club, we all need titles.”

Davenport sighed. “I don’t really think that’s-”

“Cap’nport!” Magnus exclaimed, loud and commanding, pointing at Davenport.

Davenport blinked at Magnus; the room was silent for a moment.

“Holy fucking shit,” Lup said. “I love it.”

Magnus beamed. “I’ve been waiting to use that one.” He then looked over at Merle, who had stayed quiet but kept an amused eye on what was happening, and his grin turned to a smirk. “Merle… botanist.”

Merle let a dry laugh out in a cloud of cigarette smoke. “Oh, fuck that, I almost got caught last time.”

“Yet you’re still smoking on campus,” Taako pointed out.

“Yeah, well, this is enough to piss people off without them doing shit about it.”

Lucretia had a feeling that “piss people off” meant “piss his parents and Hekuba off,” who she knew that he had been fighting with recently, but she wasn’t going to bring that up.

Davenport raised an eyebrow. “So we’re really having titles for our not-club?”

“Yes, no more questions,” Magnus abruptly continued, now pointing at Barry. “You!”

Barry’s eyes widened. “Me?”

“Barold Bluejeans,” Magnus said. “What can you bring to the table?”

Barry scratched the back of his neck, flitting his gaze all around the classroom. “Well, I mean, I could actually help with, like, homework and-”

“Nerd alert,” Lup interjected, smirking, though, when Barry looked over at her, his face flushed, her smile softened.

Lucretia had a feeling that Lup liked Barry, too.

“Intellect, great,” Magnus declared, turning his gaze towards the twins.

“We’ll bring food,” Taako said, sharing a look with Lup. “We have study hall in the cafeteria before this.”

“Perfect!” And then Magnus turned to Lucretia, grinning.

Lucretia smiled and shrugged. “What do you need me to do?”

“Whatever your heart desires!”

“You like to write, yeah?” Merle asked from his place at the window. “Don’t clubs need, like, secretaries or something?”

“I’m not going to make any of you do work for something that isn’t even-” Davenport started as Lucretia turned to him.

“I don’t mind,” she said. “Merle’s right, and I think it could be… fun to make little notes, you know? Remember it all.”

“Very sentimental, I’m loving it,” Magnus said, grinning, and looked back to Davenport. “Okay, Cap’nport, we got everyone. Now you need to make a name.”

Now Davenport looked tired purely because of them. “Do I?”

“Dav, what about that thing you were telling me about earlier?” Merle asked. “The- the plane theories and that shit.”

“The planar theory?” Davenport asked, raising an eyebrow, though the sudden excited glint in his eye didn’t go unmissed. “It’s- it’s really nothing.”

“Sounds like something,” Barry pointed out.

“It’s just-” Davenport shrugged “-There’s been a theory that there’s multiple planes of existence, like… ours is the Material Plane. There’s the Plane of Thought, the Astral Plane—twelve overall, actually—and all these planes are connected through bonds.”

“And you were saying…?” Merle prompted, a shit-eating grin on his face as he motioned for Davenport to keep talking.

Davenport shot a glare at Merle. “And I was saying that I would love to explore all those planes.”

“And?” Merle dragged out the _n_.

Davenport rolled his eyes and crossed his arms. “It’s not like it’s going to happen, so-”

“Hey, hey, wait!” Taako said, finally spinning around to fully face all of them. “You can’t tease us like that, Cap’nport!”

“Is that nickname really happening?”

“Yes!” Magnus exclaimed. “Now, tell us! You got me excited.”

Davenport, looking out at all of them watching him, finally sighed. “I said that, if I was to ever actually explore these theoretical planes, I would call my team the Institute of Planar Research and Exploration.”

“Which becomes the I! P! R! E!” Merle exclaimed, waving his hands to emphasize each letter. “And, there we have it, a club name!”

“I could make us a logo,” Lucretia offered.

Taako beamed. “Hell yeah!”

Davenport shook his head, though even he couldn’t hide a small smile. “I didn’t expect all of you to… get so invested.”

“Well, of course we did,” Lup said. “We’re all friends, aren’t we? All enthusiastic about hanging out with each other?”

“Way to be a sap, Lu,” Taako murmured.

“I think it’s fun,” Lucretia said, smiling at Lup. “I haven’t been able to see you guys a lot until now.”

“Well, yeah, because you didn’t skip a grade even though you _very well_ could have and been hanging out with us the entire time,” Magnus teased, bumping his shoulder against her’s.

“Well, she’s here now,” Lup said. “And Merle and Daven- sorry, _Cap’nport_ have this year _and_ next year to build this club up before they graduate.”

Merle laughed as Davenport groaned. “Don’t bring up college around Dav, Lup,” Merle said. “He might explode at the thought of putting ‘fake-homework-possibly-stoner club’ on his applications.”

“That would be tragic,” Magnus said solemnly, nodding.

“So, does this mean we’re doing this, like, a lot?” Taako asked. “It’s not like Lup and I have anything else to do.”

“I definitely think we’re doing this a lot,” Lup said. “I’m making that IPRE Rule Number One.” She then turned back to the white-board and picked up a marker, writing as she spoke, “IPRE members must keep hanging out.”

“Well, that’s easy,” Barry said, shrugging. “Nothing different from what we’ve always done.”

“Well, yeah, but now it’s _official_ ,” Lup said, starring what she wrote. “So we gotta listen to this, okay? The seven of us. Best friends. _Forever_. Even after we all graduate and become boring adults.”

“Obviously,” Magnus said, nodding. “We didn’t go through all the trouble to painstakingly elect the positions of this club for it to all go to shit in a couple years.”

Lucretia laughed and Magnus turned to her, a grin wide on his face. “I’m okay with that,” she said with a small shrug.

**Author's Note:**

> please let me know what you think!! i already have some ideas for one-shots i want to do with this
> 
> kudos and comments are very much appreciated <3
> 
> ohsweetflips.tumblr.com


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